Neville assesses Liverpool Champions League chances after Man City’s late turnaround
Liverpool’s Champions League hopes have taken a hit after we lost 2-1 to Manchester City at Anfield, and Gary Neville thinks the immediate response inside Arne Slot’s squad will decide whether the defeat becomes a blip or a problem.
Manchester City’s late turnaround, sealed by Bernardo Silva’s equaliser and an Erling Haaland stoppage-time penalty, leaves us stuck on 39 points and looking up at the current top five.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast via Sky Sports Premier League on YouTube, Gary Neville said: “That’ll be a tough take… for Arne Slot and his players.”
Neville says Liverpool must “box it up” after Anfield chaos
Neville’s main point was not to overreact to a match that swung wildly late on, even if Liverpool should have managed the closing stages better after taking the lead.
The former Manchester United right-back said: “If they can compartmentalise it to a bit of a freak of a game… and not let it infect and create something negative in here, then they still be fine and they’ll still be okay.”
The 50-year-old was also clear that the performance was split in two, and that matters because it changes how we should read the result.
He said: “First half they didn’t play very well at all… but second half they actually were dominant for probably 35, 40 minutes and they were the better team.”
That lines up with the feel of the game, where Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick finally lit it up, before the contest dissolved into late drama and decisive moments.
What the stats say about Liverpool v Man City
The numbers show why this one feels so frustrating, because we were in it throughout, but Manchester City created the bigger chances and produced the higher expected goals.
Sofascore has Liverpool at 1.21 xG to Manchester City’s 2.75, with City landing seven shots on target to our four.
| Stat | Liverpool | Man City |
|---|---|---|
| Expected goals (xG) | 1.21 | 2.75 |
| Total shots | 15 | 17 |
| Shots on target | 4 | 7 |
| Big chances | 1 | 3 |
| Possession | 47% | 53% |
That context matters when we talk about “an even game”, because the match may have been tight for long spells, but the volume and quality of City’s chances suggests we rode our luck at times, especially before the break.
There is also an unavoidable Champions League pressure layer now, because the table has us sixth on 39 points, with Chelsea fifth on 43 and Manchester United fourth on 44.
Gary Neville acknowledged the gap is not huge, but he still framed Liverpool as a side with something to prove mentally.
The Sky Sports pundit said: “There is a question mark… whether they will finish in the Champions League spaces. I still think they will.”
That is where the post-match narratives from elsewhere cut both ways, because Jamie Carragher’s point about Alisson’s penalty decision being a huge error speaks to how thin the margins have been for us in key moments.
Meanwhile, Arne Slot’s frustration over Marc Guéhi’s shirt-pull on Mo Salah taps into the sense that we did enough in phases to deserve more than a late gut-punch.
Gary Neville’s bottom line, though, is simple: Liverpool have to treat this as a one-off bout of chaos, learn from the endgame, and move on fast because the schedule will not wait.
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The post Neville assesses Liverpool Champions League chances after Man City’s late turnaround appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.